Chicago Scenes: Tourists gather in the shadow of the "Cloud Gate" sculpture, a.k.a. "The Bean" at the AT&T Plaza at Millennium Park

(Optional Trim: Cloud Gate is British artist Anish Kapoor's first public outdoor work installed in the United States.

The 110-ton elliptical sculpture is forged of a seamless series of highly polished stainless steel plates, which reflect Chicago’s famous skyline and the clouds above. A 12-foot-high arch provides a "gate" to the concave chamber beneath the sculpture, inviting visitors to touch its mirror-like surface and see their image reflected back from a variety of perspectives.

Inspired by liquid mercury, the sculpture is among the largest of its kind in the world, measuring 66-feet long by 33-feet high. ) (DePaul University/Jamie Moncrief)